Cool Shoes

I took this photograph of an elementary school teacher’s shoes at Francesco’s Restaurant. It had been a fixture in White Plains since the early ’70s before recently closing its doors. Francesco’s and the area around it have been the home to decades of our history. More about the shoes, and the person who occupied them in a minute. First I want to wander down memory lane about our life and times in White Plains.

When I was fifteen, my family moved to White Plains, and we lived on North Broadway. On crisp autumn afternoons, I would walk home from high school, which was on North Street. My route took me past Francesco’s. It was a little bar and restaurant. It’s tucked between a high-end audio store and a barbershop on Mamaroneck Avenue.

As a perpetually hungry teenager, I just couldn’t resist stopping in from time to time. I had a part-time job at Sears, which gave me just enough pocket money to indulge in a treat. Back then, the place was under different ownership. Frank—Francesco—was already in the kitchen. He was honing his craft before taking over the place.

My order was always the same: steamers. Eating them involved a hypnotic process. You carefully pry clams from their shells. Then, you wash them in warm broth. Finally, you dip them into golden, melted butter. Each movement felt rhythmic, calming. When I finished, I would lift the bowl of broth to my lips. I sipped slowly and carefully to avoid disturbing the sand. The sand had settled at the bottom, remnants from the clams.

In the late ’70s, Norma and I moved into an apartment at 2 Overlook Avenue. It was right at the corner of Bryant. The apartment was just across the street from her parents at Surrey Strathmore. Our first child Jessica and Eric were both born while we were living there. We spent six months in Mohegan Lake after Eric was born. Other than that, we never moved more than a few blocks from that spot for the next fifty years. The apartment building is at the top of the hill. The hill rises steeply from Mamaroneck avenue and Bryant below. It continues to the corner of Overlook and Bryant. Then it goes onward to the crest of the hill at Old Mamaroneck Rd. When we returned to White Plains we moved into a beautiful two bedroom apartment at the Surrey Strathmore on Bryant. The building was turning coop. We bought with the help of my mom. Norma’s parents also helped us to carpet and furnish the home. A few years later, we moved to a tiny house on Gedney Terrace. This was the house where the boys grew up. It was just one long block from Bryant Avenue and Mamaroneck Ave.

Oh, the owner of the shoes. Really nice guy who must be a great teacher. He and his wife were regulars at Francesco’s. She is a transplant from Chicago. They dined at the bar along with other regulars who will more than likely appear in future musings.